


The Shadow People

by mvernet



Series: Sentinel Thursday Prompt Fics [11]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Creepy Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M, Prompt Fic, Prompt Ghost, Sentinel Thursday Prompt, Shadow people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 19:25:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15492981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mvernet/pseuds/mvernet
Summary: Blair is having a strange reaction to his near-death experience.Sentinel Thursday Live Journal prompt, Ghost.





	The Shadow People

**Author's Note:**

> My friend’s dad saw “Shadow People” after a stroke. His doctor said it was a common visual/audio manifestation probably caused by the same brain dysfunction that causes visual effects (like swirling black dots) in migraines. In other words they don’t have a clue what Shadow People are.

It was an hour past sundown when Jim pulled his blue and white pick-up into a good parking spot right in front of the loft. Blair’s Volvo was covered with a thin layer of icey rain, parked in the same spot since Jim had left for work in the morning. He shut-off his engine, but it continued to sputter, dieseling till the truck trembled as if it was afraid it would never start again. It coughed like the old Ford was taking its last shuddering breath before death. As if it was drowning in its own wasted fuel, before sudden silence once more filled the cab. Jim let his head fall to the steering wheel he held with white knuckled fists.Getting a tune-up for the truck would be easy. Getting his Guide back to normal after his recent, near-death experience? Not easy at all.

Jim raised his eyes to the loft. He sought his lifeline, his partner’s heartbeat, and found it. It sounded strong but fast. Too fast. The loft had no lights on, not even the flickering lights of Blair’s meditation candles.

“Damnit, Chief. Not again,” he whispered. Once more his traitorous mind ran through recent events, searching for something to use to help his Guide.

After Blair’s death and resurrection, after the bonding, the betrayal, and the forgiveness. After Alex tore the heart out of Blair and Jim, even after all that, their two hearts were still beating, still together, still trying to make things right. Right now, one of those hearts was beating wildly in a darkened loft and the other one was breaking on the freezing street below.

Jim took the stairs two at a time and used his key to enter the door Blair had locked. Jim entered and called out right away so he wouldn’t frighten his skittish partner.

“Honey! I’m home! Chief where…”

Jim didn’t really need Blair to answer. He could see him plainly despite the pulled shades and the inhospitable darkness of their home.

“Awww, Chief. You okay?”

Blair sat in the very middle of the floor. He shivered in just a tee and flannel pajama bottoms. Too frightened to even reach for the blanket on the couch. His hair hung a several inches below his chin now, and formed a perfect veil over his expressive face. He slowly raised his head to gaze at Jim. His eyes were red and wild as if he hadn’t blinked in hours. That might have been the case.

“Jim. They came just before sundown. When the afternoon light makes sunspots that move and lengthen across the floor.”

“Chief…”

Blair looked around the room frantically. “No, Jim! I saw them. The Shadow People. Not just in the corners this time. This time they reached for me. Tried to stroke my hair! The tall man in the top hat. The woman in the ballgown. And the boy in knickers and bare feet holding his box of things to sell on the corner. A corner where long ago he sold matches to provide food for…”

“Blair! STOP!” Jim cried and dragged Blair to his feet. He embraced him and forced his head into the safety and comfort of his shoulder. “Shush. It’s alright. I’m home. We can turn on the lights. I’ll order a pizza and we’ll watch TV. And I’ll hold you, honey. I’ll hold you till all the shadows are gone.” 

Blair pulled back just enough to look up at Jim with more sorrow than should ever be held in a face so beautiful. “Jim? Am I insane?”

Jim released Blair, but held his hand tightly. He led him to the couch so he would not stub his toe in the dark. They sat close to each other, Jim never let go of his partner’s trembling hand. “No, Blair. We’ve been over this. No, you are not insane. You had all the tests. Nothing shows any permanent brain damage from the drowning, but you were clinically dead for at least twenty minutes maybe longer.. You know this. The doctor said that some people think they see ghosts or odd shadows after a stroke or a brain injury. He said they were similar to the migraines you get sometimes. You might be susceptible to visual hallucinations. Your brain is healing. You are getting flashes of things that aren’t there. Your brain is repairing itself, sometimes there's a glitch. Do you have a headache now, honey?” 

Blair nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. I’m sorry Jim.”

Jim threw an arm around Blair’s shoulders and gave him a brief hug. “None of that. What did we say?”

Blair recited as if he was a naughty schoolboy.

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry, except when you are a dickhead, then you should apologize, but only once, then you will be forgiven and should forgive yourself for being a dickhead, because we can all be dickheads from time to time, and love is best expressed by eating pizza, drinking beer and watching sports together on the couch.”

Jim could see Blair was smiling now and he joined him. “Wise, words, Shaman of the Great City.”

“Hey! You made that crazy shit up. I just agreed it was a good moto to live by.”

Jim slowly pulled away, but not before covering Blair with a warm blanket from the back of the couch. “Should I light a fire?”

“No!” Blair sounded frantic again as his breathing grew labored. “Too many shadows in firelight. Jim, just let me close my eyes, then you turn on all the lights? Is that too weird?”

“Take it easy, Chief. Whatever helps, okay?”

Blair nodded in the dark living room as his Sentinel turned on the lights and called for a pizza. He opened his eyes and spoke softly, knowing Jim could hear him even from the kitchen where he was making tea.

“The Shadow People talked to me this evening or rather the little boy did. He told me his name is Roland. He was run over by a wagon on a busy street right here in Cascade a hundred years ago. He said he didn’t know where his soul was. He thought it might be in heaven because he was a good boy. His mother told him so. He wanted to know if I saw it there when I died. Jim. I… I didn’t know what to say so I told him, I thought I had. Then he made a hissing sound I felt him pass through me. Then he turned into black smoke and drifted away.”

 

Jim continued making tea for his recovering Guide. He got out Blair’s pills. A thirty day antibiotic course for his lungs, one to prevent migraines, a strong pain reliever if he did get a headache and one for anxiety. He brought the tea over to Blair and stroked his hair fondly. They had admitted their mutual love for each other and revealed to each other the overwhelming emotions they felt when the Sentinel/Guide bond brought Blair back to life. This revelation had happened the second time Blair had been hospitalized after his drowning. 

 

That time Blair had succumbed to an attack of pneumonia. When Jim and he entered the empty, cold, loft after coming back from Peru, the Shadow People had been staging an ambush for Blair. He ran away, managing to evade Jim for two days and almost three nights. Jim searched frantically for him and finally found him on the streets of South Town, hiding from shadows, sick, delirious and afraid he was losing his mind.

 

Jim never left Blair’s side during that hospital stay. When the Shadow People found him, Jim kept them at bay, with promises of exploring the mystical and the physical together forever. Blair had suddenly become fragile to the Sentinel’s eyes. Merely a shadow himself and Jim was so afraid his soulmate was fading right before his eyes. Jim made a silent vow to restore what had been taken from Blair a hundred fold. He loved Blair Sandburg and he told him so. That was all Blair needed to hear to keep him bound to Jim and the earth realm.

“Blair, honey. Take your pills. The pizza will be here soon.” Jim tried for normalcy.

Blair obeyed without a fuss, sipping happily at his tea despite his anxiety, which confirmed that normal was not on the menu for tonight. “Jim? You think maybe, I helped? You think maybe somehow I’m connected to a place where parts of people’s souls are lost? You think I can help more of them?”

Jim sat next to Blair and took both his cold hands to warm them in his. “Blair, I honestly don’t know what these Shadow People are. They may be real ghosts, or they may be part of your mind’s healing process like the doctor supposed. It may be the Shaman in you coming on line, like when my senses came on line and I thought I was going insane. All I know is if anyone on earth could figure it out it would be my beautiful Guide. And I’ll be right beside you when you do.”

Their kiss was sweet, full of love, life and light. A light so bright it could dispel any ghost from the shadows that held it.


End file.
